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angry tapir writes "Mobile carriers may start giving away netbooks for free, and Linux-based application stores could help them profit by doing so, the Linux Foundation's Jim Zemlin argued at a recent forum in Beijing. 'Selling discounted netbooks to users who buy a mobile data subscription would extend a sales strategy widely used for mobile phones. Carriers often sell phones for below retail price and let a user's subscription fees make up for the loss. AT&T already sells subsidized 3G netbooks in the US, and China Mobile has announced similar plans. Carriers worldwide are likely considering the option, which lets them charge for added services like downloads of music, videos and software, said [analyst Jack Gold]. Those downloads could come from platforms like the iPhone App Store that target mainly mobile phones today. Competition could push netbook prices down as more carriers subsidize them, which would make putting Linux on the laptops an attractive way to cut costs, said Zemlin.'"

Honestly I would say that limiting to the Telcos is dumb. It is a good way for Distros to make money as well as developers. The price for the software could be split between the developer, the store, and the Distro/Telco with the developer getting the majority of the price,And just to put a stop to the "It's called a repository" statements.An app store would allow the developer to set a price and handle charging the customer and would just send a check to the developer.It would have reviews and ratingsAnd would allow the developer to decide what version is available and not the distro.It should take care of dependencies just like a repository as well.That would be a huge leap for Linux on the desktop and would encourage commercial software development.

Or you can get together with the millions of other people in the world who need the software, each contribute, oh, $10, and make it. And then install it on as many machines as you like, no license fees, no stupid USB dongles, no upgrade costs, nothing.

There is little doubt about which method is more effective, it's just that we've become so entrenched in the previous closed-source model that we don't see any other way out. It does take a huge amount of organization, admittedly, but it can be done, and done to higher standards than most commercial software currently adheres to.

Another less attractive option is what some companies have already tried--agreeing to release the source code once a certain number of "licenses" have been purchased. This is not ideal, however, because the actual process of development remains closed.

The biggest area where we need to employ this type of strategy is in public services--the software that runs our governments, schools and universities, libraries, etc. None of these organizations should be victims of for-profit corporations. They perform basically the same task all over the world, and everyone can benefit from a common, high-quality, open source solution.

Yes but number one you would have to collect that money, pay the programmers and run the project.Then what about updates?Also you will have to wait for the software to be written.So far no large project like this has worked and people need software NOW.I actually work for a software company. There was a group of people that used a competing program from a company that went out of business.The users all got together and bought the rights to the source. Sounds like your dream open source situation doesn't it.They soon found out that the users group couldn't manage even one programmer. The software started to lag way behind the commercial products including ours. They the failed to figure out how to interface with a new device on the market that they really wanted to use.A user was friends with us and told us about it. We felt sorry for them and gave them source to interface with the device. It wasn't our device but we had figured it out and wanted to help out.After several months the other programmer still hadn't managed to port the code and get it working.In mass they bought our software because we where willing to help and our software was actually very good.I have a small sample of the system you have proposed but the failure rate is 100%.So I have to say it is possible but very unlikely and very risky.So prove me wrong. I will even give $10 for a 3d cad program as good as Solidworks if you promise it in less than two years.It will not happen.